Mission Greenhouse: 2013 Trip

In June, fifteen POET team members and three family members, will leave the comfort of the Midwest and travel half way around the world to Kenya, Africa.

This school, though, isn’t the type of school you would see in the Midwest, and the students have lived anything but an easy life. This boarding school hosts students who come mostly from the slums of Nairobi and most have lost their parents to disease, famine and general hard living.

The goal of the Travellers’ Oasis Centre in Sultan Hamud, Kenya is to provide education to girls, developing their academic skills as well as their moral and spiritual character. The school provides the girls with safety above all else as well as food, shelter, medical and clothing.

Students at Travellers’ Oasis Centre in Sultan Hamud, Kenya

Working with World Servants, an organization who provides cross cultural short term mission trips, the POET team members will spend five days building a greenhouse for the school. The purpose of the greenhouse is to not only provide food for the students, but to teach these girls the skills to be self-reliant.

An existing greenhouse at Travellers’ Oasis Centre

An existing greenhouse at Travellers’ Oasis Centre

Mission Greenhouse is a multi-year project with a goal to build more greenhouses enabling the school to be self-sufficient in their food needs, eventually providing the school with enough produce to sell.

An existing greenhouse at Travellers’ Oasis Centre

To prepare for the trip and the costs, the team members will be doing some fast and furious fundraising. Mission trips are not cheap, but the experience far outweighs the cost.

If you would like to donate to their cause, write a check to World Servants and mail it to the POET Corporate Office (4615 N Lewis Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57104). You will be a part of this amazing experience and you will receive a tax deduction on your gift.

To follow their trip, “Like” POET’s Facebook page and watch for a feature story on their trip in the summer issue of Vital.